The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-03-19
The Brave FIremen Mount the Lad
ders and Save Many.
List OF the Killed, Dying and Injured.
A Block Entirely consumed=The
Loss Estimated at s4oo, 900.

Loss Estimated at S4oo,ooo
BUFFALO, n. Y, March 1S.-A fire was
discovered at $50 this morning in the new
Richmond Hotel. An alarm was sounded
and the fire department responded promptly
The house contained large number Of
guests and their heartrendering shrek.
could plainly be heard. Ladders were raised
and as many as possible saved A large
number of guests were unable to effect theil
escape, at o'clock the entire Richmond
Hotel, st. James Hall and other property in
the block were doomed to destruction. The
whole place burned like tinder box. The
corridor in the centre of the building acted as
great funnel, and as the flames streamed
up the guests found themselve imprisoned by
wall of fire. The screams of the guests
could be heard for blocks. AT many of the
windows could be seen frightened women in
their nightclothes calling for help. At the
third floor windows two guests were seen by
the crowd to fall back into the flames. One
man jumped from the fifth floor to the roof
of two-story wooden building adjoining.
He was seriously injured. The number of
persons injured is not exactly known. Hon.
M. w. Barse of Olean was terribly burned
about the hands and wrists. A number of
insurance men were in the building, and
several of them were badly injured. Among
them were w. j. Mckay of Niagara Falls, C.
w. Dubois of Syracuse, w. S. Dewey of
Rochester, who escaped with bad burns;
Clinton Bidwell of Pittsburg, badly burned
At the Emergency Hospital are c. Davis of
New York, hands and feet badly burned; III.
b. Smith Of the North British In
surance Company of New York, hands and
feet burned; Edward Whelan Of New York,
hands in a terrible condition. They are
probably not fatally injured. The Fitch
Hospital contains about eight men and one
woman. All are in. pretty bad condition
and more or less seriously injured. Two in
jured persons are at the Sister Hospital and
four are at the General Hospital. The build
ing was situated at the corner of Main and
Eagle streets, extending through to Washing
ton street
Another Account.
The Richmond Hotel and St. James Hall
have been burned to the ground and several
human lives have been sacrificed. At
O'Clock the estimate of the loss of life was
stated to be u, but this is mere guess-work.
There were 125 persons in the hotel, 20 of
whom were transient guests, 8 bOarders, and
the remainder porters, bell boys and the
families of the proprietors and clerks.
Twenty-Five of these were rescued from the
windows by the fremen, % are at the hospi-
tails and large number made their escape
by other means. The origin of the fire is
not known.
William H. Airport, the night clerk, saws:
''The fire started in the cloak room under the
main stairway at 1.30 o'clock. There was
nobody up but myself the night porter and
the bell boy. | pulled all four of the fire
alarms on the different floors and the people
came flying down stairs in their night
clothes. The fire followed the elevator, and
inside of five minutes it reached the top
floor. rushed out after doing all | could.'
Bell boy Plummer says: II was busting
the reading room when | heard shout and
saw the flames coming up the stairway from
the basement. Mr.. Alport and | turned on
the hose under the main stairway. We
Strengthened the hose out and turned the
valve, but the water would not run. Then
we gave the alarm. The watchman and [
got plank and broke in the Eagle street en-
trance to the hotel. Then we got the plank
under the fire escape on Eagle street, and
we helped peoplepown; | think there were
about "a guests in the house"
The spread of the flames is said to have
been frightful in its rapidity. The elevator
shaft served as a flue for the flames and they
rushed up to the top floor in very few mo-
ments. As the guests were reused and saw
the interior exits cut off they turned to the
windows. They could be seen in their night
clothes standing out clear and vivid before
the lurid flames, Their screams were horri-
BILE to hear and they could be heard for
blocks. The flames spread to the southeast
side of the hotel first. The firemen did
noble work and confined the fire to the mar
row limits Of the three buildings named.
Their work Of rescue had many exciting in
cidents. The telegraph wires were as usual
in the way of the ladder brigade, and much
time was lost in getting the ladders past
them. j. G. Gilbert, commercial traveller,
was rescued from the Eagle street side He
could be seen for some minutes standing in
the window of fifth floor room, the flames
on all sides of him, and the dull red, ominous
glare behind. Patiently he stood and wait
ed the arrival of the latter, which was being
slowly raised, and it reached him none too
soon, for as he grasped it and began his
descent the place he had just vacated was
seen to take fire.
Individual Experiences.
Clinton Bidwell of Pittsburg is lying on an
improvised cot at DR.. Hayd's office on Nj
agara street. Look at my hands," he cried.
II tied the sheets and came down by them.
When | was most down a man shot past me
who had jumped. He came near striking
me- The people lay on the roof all about
me. They were groaning and dying. 1t was
awful The skin is all off me. l made up
my mind | would stick to the rope and |
did," He turned on his cot and yelled with
pain. DIR. Hayd had given HIM morphine.
in the next room lay Jennie Mann. daughter
of one of the proprietors. She was terribly
burned, and called piteously for her mother
and screamed with pain. She was in her
night dress, and her face was pulled With the
scOrching it received.
Louis Zendman of New York had room
on the fourth floor, and crawling out OF the
window he gained an entrance to Burners
Museum. He found his way down stairs
and kicked open the door, He was not much
injured.
Alfred G. Clay OF Philadelphia and Louis
E. Smith OF Brooklyn had most remarka-
Bile experience. They were in adjoining
rooms ON the fifth floor and tell about the
same story. Mr.. Clay was aroused by the
ringing of the electric bell and got up. He
| pressed his finger on the button, wondering
| what was the matter, but the bell continued
| ringing. 1t then dawned upon him that
something was wrong. By this time the
| place was beginning to blaze furiously. He
found the exit by the stairways ant off and
took to the window. Both he and Mr.. Smith
| had barely reached BunnePS Museum room
when, on looking below they saw five girls
4 in fifth story window. They had tied the
| bed clothing into rope which they hung
| out, but none of them seemed to have the
| courage to start At last one of the five took
hold and swung down to window ledge
| from which she was assisted by Messrs. Clay
| and Smith. Three others came down in the
same manner, and then the fifth girl started
down. She had got but q little distance
when the rope parted ana sne lell IOur $40
ries. Strange to say she was not killed
Her legs were terribly cut and bruised, hel
| back badly injured and her face and arm:
were in a frightful condition from burns
Her name is Mary Connell.
A. II. Bowen of Tonawanda says: II wa'
on the third floor with j. L. McCurdy. Oul
room was 14l front. We escaped in oul
night clothes. | went back for my watcl
and came near being burned to death Thanh
God, am not hurt"
One OF the saddest scenes of the conflagra
ton was the fall of the man from a window
to the roof of the frame structure adjoining
on Main street. He was Win. Purcell of th
city. He must have been severely injured in
ternaliy. In falling he struck on his heaC
and died almost instantly.
MI. and Mrs William j. Mann, past pro
prietors Of the hotel, had narrow ESCAPES
Mrs. Mann was frightfully burned about th,
head, arm and legs, and lay in a LAWYER
Office across the street screaming with mai,
and calling for her little daughter Jennie
The last persons taken alive from the burn
ing building were two domestcs, who wer
rescued from the southern end of the 6ft
floor by firemen on an extension ladder.
w. j. Mckee and w. L. Lamb Of Ne,
York appuDind rnnmS fhn fourth a,d +b;,.